If you’re looking to buy or sell a business in Alabama, Tennessee, or Georgia, you will need one of the best business brokers in Alabama or in Georgia. You might be considering using Alliant Capital Advisors, LLC. So in this Alliant Capital Advisors review, we will help you decide if you should use this business broker or look for another.
UPDATED: April 2024
Our Overall Rating
Overview Of Alliant Capital Advisors, LLC
Started in 2005, Alliant Capital Advisors, LLC has become a well known business broker.
While the parent company was started in 2005 by Bill Marrero, the brokerage firm in Alabama has been doing business since 2010.
The company as a whole has a team of 12 people. Currently, the Alabama branch is run by Angela Graham, a long time resident of the state of Alabama.
They have offices in Alabama, Tennessee, and Georgia.
The Alliant Capital Advisors website claims that their team has over 50+ years of experience as business brokers, and we assume this means combined years of experience, but our research for this Alliant Capital Advisors review showed that they have been working as business brokers since 2005.
Alliant Capital Advisors has been accredited with the Better Business Bureau since 2011 and have an A+ rating at the time of this writing.
Types Of Businesses Alliant Capital Advisors, LLC Sells
If you want to sell your business using this business broker, you need to know that they deal mainly with companies in the industries of retail, construction, manufacturing, food services, and financial services.
Many business brokers will deal with smaller sized businesses under $500,000 per year in annual revenue. Alliant Capital Advisors is not one of those brokers. They only deal with businesses with annual revenues from $5 million to $150 million dollars.
Alliant Capital Advisors is a business broker that deals mainly with brick and mortar businesses. If you’re looking to buy or sell a web based business, you will want to consider Website Properties or one of our choices for the best website brokers.
Alliant Capital Advisors, LLC Valuation Process
For those looking to sell a business using Alliant Capital Advisors, it’s important to learn a bit about the process they use to value a business.
Not all business brokers perform business valuations the same which is why it’s very important to work with a business broker who knows how to value a business properly.
Seller’s Discretionary Earnings Determine Price
Like most business brokers, this firm first looks at what is called seller’s discretionary earnings.
You will need to provide the last three years of financials to come up with an amount that a buyer can expect to make if they purchased your business.
Once they know the seller’s discretionary earnings for your business, Alliant Capital Advisors then goes out and does comparables in your particular industry to determine the best selling price for your business.
Sales Process
The sales process for this brokerage is outlined below. It is simple and easy to understand.
Marketing
Once they have a price for your business, the team at this brokerage will then market your business without ever revealing the name of your business. They look for buyers in a secure confidential manner and keep your business information private.
Performing Buyer Management
From here, Alliant Capital Advisors contacts and looks for buyers by using a careful screening process to avoid those who are not serious buyers.
Each potential buyer is required to sign an NDA and is screened to by sure they have the finances to buy the business. If buyers do not meet any of the criteria they cannot go any further in the process.
Negotiating The Sale
Most people have no real negotiation skills which is why using a business broker is so important. Once a buyer is identified, the process of negotiations with the buyer is started to try and secure the best price for your business.
Due Diligence
The due diligence process can be very time consuming and stressful for both buyer and seller. Alliant Capital Advisors handles this process to make sure it does not take longer than needed and is done properly.
Closing Documents
Once negotiation and due diligence is complete, it’s time to draw up the legal documents that will be needed to complete the sale. This is all handled from beginning to end by this firm.
Closing And Final Sale
In this last part of the sale, everything is handed over to the buyer and they can then begin to run the business as the new owner.
Alliant Capital Advisors, LLC Success Rates
According to the information provided to us from their website, since they started in 2010 they have sold 150 businesses to date. This has totaled near $125 million.
150 businesses in a 10 year period is not too bad considering that is an average of 15 businesses sold per year. But this pales in comparison to some of the larger more well known business brokers in the market.
Fees Charged By Alliant Capital Advisors, LLC To Sell A Business
We always like when a business broker outlines their fees on their website. This shows a sense of transparency.
While most business brokers charge from 2% to 15% to sell a business, in our research for this Alliant Capital Advisors review, we could not determine the fees charged by this business brokerage because there is no mention of this on their website.
That being said, their website does mention that they do not charge any up front fees and that they only receive payment when a sale is completed. There is just no mention of what percentages they take when a sale is done.
While we did try to contact them regarding this matter, we received no response to our requests.
Pros And Cons Of Using Alliant Capital Advisors, LLC
The following is our list of the benefits and advantages of using Alliant Capital Advisors to sell a business.
Pros
- 15 year track record.
- Straight forward valuation process.
- Easy to understand sales process.
Cons
- No mention of fees charged to sell a business.
- Website is a bit confusing as to their history.
- Response times are very bad as they never responded to our requests.
- Only deal with businesses with revenues in excess of $5 million
Conclusion And Verdict
While this business brokerage does boost a decent 10 year track period and 150 businesses sold, this is still rather young compared to other more seasoned business brokerage firms who are in the market.
This firm does seem to have a very good valuation and sales process and it does seem like they are very experienced in this regard.
However, with no fees mentioned, it’s hard to understand exactly how the whole process works.
We contacted this brokerage to check response times for this Alliant Capital Advisors review. The problem is we never received any response to our requests. Now this was done through their contact form on their website, so you may do better by calling the phone number listed on their website.
A response should be expected though especially if you complete the free confidential analysis form on their website but we never received any response even after trying twice.
There are many business brokers in Alabama and we only recommend a few.
We cannot fully recommend Alliant Capital Advisors simply because we do not like the fact that we never receive any response to our messages.
This does not mean that this business brokerage is not good, it simply means we cannot recommend them at this time. This may change should we hear back from them.
